John Taylor
Summary John Taylor is the central protagonist of the Nightside novel series, written by Simon R. Green. A private investigator with a third eye that allows him to "find anything, or anyone", John is the son of Charles Taylor and the Biblical entity Lilith, born and raised in the Nightside as one of its many residents. Powers and Stats Tier: 9-B physically, Unknown with his powers | At least 1-B, possibly far higher Name: John Taylor Origin: Nightside Gender: Male Age: Unknown, likely in his 40s at most. (Claims that a Flock of Seagulls joke would have shown his age, but also states that the sixties happened before he was born.) Classification: Half-Human, Private Eye, Son of Lilith, The New Walker Powers and Abilities: |-|Base=Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Regeneration (Mid; regenerated from being shot in the head. Suzie, whose blood is the source of his regenerative abilities, regenerated from having her organs ripped out.), Enhanced Senses (Can see perfectly well in dim light), Acausality (Type 4; an oracle stated that his entire existence was "unlikely" to the point that it was difficult to think about, and that all of his actions change not only his own future, but the future of everyone else around him. This has shown to make him impossible to predict via Precognition within the context of the setting, and also allowed him to naturally defy a future that was being enforced upon the entire universe), Magic, Reality Warping, Extrasensory Perception, Clairvoyance, Psychometry and Non-Physical Interaction (Possesses a third eye which allows him to "find anything, or anyone", including invisible beings, Non-Corporeal spirits, abstract embodiments, magical defenses, enchantments and curses, beings hidden by illusions and "camouflage magics", probabilities, weaknesses, timelines, Words of Power connected to spells, and other things otherwise hidden from normal view, gaining information from whatever he sees. The abstract personification of this gift stated that the eye can see all of reality, and everything contained within it, at once.), Precognition and Postcognition (Used his third eye to see where a teleporter would appear next, and has also used his gift to see the exact places to stand in order to be safe from attacks. Can use his gift to see afterimages of exactly where people have been and what they have done as far as several weeks into the past), Fire Manipulation, Telepathy, minor Telekinesis, Portal Creation and Manipulation (Can use his eye to find doors hidden by "temporal inertia" and open them. Found a rift left behind by Razor Eddie cutting through space, then used it to reopen a portal the latter had created. Possesses a Membership Card that can open a portal leading to the bar Strangefellows, as well as open portals leading from Strangefellows to any place of his choosing. Can force nearby Timeslips to open themselves at his current location), Time Travel and Dimensional Travel (After being sent to an alternate timeline by Count Video, he used his eye to quickly find his native timeline and send himself back. Can use power siphoned from other sources to send himself and other people across time. Eventually acquires a portable Timeslip which allows him to freely travel throughout time and space.), Biological Manipulation, Body Puppetry and Paralysis Inducement (Can physically paralyze and cause internal bleeding within a person by "staring them down", as well as force them to perform actions against their will.), Light Manipulation (Found "the right ultraviolet frequency" in the moonlight and changed it, forcing a pack of werewolves to shift back into their human forms. Carries several flashbangs and other light-generating explosives), Perception Manipulation and Statistics Amplification (His third eye amplifies his perception, to the point that he can see things as fast and as small as tachyons while his gift is raised), Teleportation and Spatial Manipulation (Has forcibly teleported the bullets out of his enemies' firearms on numerous occasions, even teleporting a whole security team's bullets into his hands despite them normally lacking the space to contain such a vast amount. Teleported the filings out of the teeth of an entire mob. Can teleport the air out of a person's lungs, as well as forcibly teleport objects or substances into a person's body. Capable of teleporting all of the weapons, armor and clothes off a person or group of people at will. Teleported all of the rain in a distant rainstorm into an alternate dimension he and several others were sealed in. Found a place outside of the Nightside where the sun was shining and teleported the sunlight to his location. Has claimed numerous times to be capable of teleporting a person's organs out of their body), Technology Manipulation (Used his third eye to find codes to a door and enter them directly into its security system. Found the shutdown commands contained within the minds of a group of security robots and activated them with a thought. Located a living train with his third eye and forced it to start travelling in his direction. Found the self-destruct mechanism in a power plant and activated it with his gift.), Probability Manipulation (Can find the "chance" of something and "blow it out like a candle", making said thing impossible. Found "all of the things that could go wrong with a motorcycle", then enforced those possibilities on an entire army of bikers, causing all of their motorcycles to catastrophically fail at the same time. Possesses a pair of "chaos dice" which he can use to manipulate probability in various ways.), Death Manipulation (Can "find another's death" and strike out with it using his gift. Owns an "aboriginal pointing bone", which he can use to instantly kill a person an object, such as a door by pointing it and muttering a couple of Words of Power; As seen in Hex and the City with Sandra Chance's identical pointing bone, it can also force Non-Corporeal spirits out of the material world.), Soul Manipulation (Found a spirit in the afterlife and brought it back to the material plane), forced Possession (Can find the connection between a person and their ancestor and use it to force the latter to possess the former), Higher-Dimensional Manipulation (Can lower the dimensionality of higher-dimensional beings, causing them to be physically restructured by the laws of 3-D space. Separated Kid Cthulhu from a higher-dimensional taint that had fused with him.), BFR (Found a hole between dimensions and used it to send a higher-dimensional artifact back to its native dimension. Possesses a coin which can be used to banish people, spirits, lower-dimensional beings and other entities.), Resistance Negation (By "focusing his gift into a sharp point", he can slip through magical and telepathic resistances, although it takes him a few seconds to properly focus his powers in this manner.), Rage Power (His anger has been shown to strengthen his resistance to mental and emotional attacks. Caused a living car to explode by directing all of his anger and frustration at it.), Power Nullification (Can find the source of a person's innate powers and shut it down, taking away those abilities. Located the direct link between the Lamentation and all of its undead servants and severed it, completely removing its control over them and stripping its hold on their souls. Used his powers to completely nullify a ghost's Shapeshifting abilities. Reverted Sylvia Sin, who existed as every sexual desire, to a single mortal form which took away all of her abilities. Can remove the restraints of a magical item or source of power, causing it to discharge all of its power at once. Can find the "switch" in someone's mind which activates their powers and "force it all the way back", shutting off those abilities. Capable of removing illusions. Can find the touch of time-based powers on a time traveller and remove it, reversing their time travel. Can locate spells, curses and enchantments that have been put in place and deactivate them. His third eye's powers directly clashed with Tommy Oblivion's Probability Manipulation, preventing it from fully manifesting when the two of them activated their abilities at the same time.), Power Absorption (His gift allows him to locate magical defenses and seize them from whatever it is they are protecting, wrapping them around himself instead. Can use his gift to tap into a source of power and repurpose it for his own needs. Located the familial link connecting him to Lilith and used it to siphon magical power from her), Magic Absorption and Attack Reflection (With Excalibur), Resistance to the following: Time Manipulation (His mind can function under the effects of stopped time. Eventually enhances his coat with protections against the time-manipulating powers of Larry Oblivion's elven wand), Matter Manipulation/Transmutation (Ace, a combat magician whose magic could ignore Merlin Satanspawn's magical protections, failed to transmute John with a spell), Mind Manipulation (Possesses several layers of mental barriers that protect his mind from attackers. Withstood a psychic attack from the Primal; higher-dimensional, purely conceptual beings. Fought off the Speaking Gun's mental effects through sheer force of will. His strongest mental shields were able to protect him from Lilith's mind-controlling aura, as well as keep angels' true forms from affecting his mind), Possession (Resisted possession from the Primal. Fought against Baphomet's possession of his body, eventually forcing the angel out.), Madness Manipulation (Regularly encounters beings whose appearance can drive people insane and whose forms "hurt to look at". As seen when he, Dead Boy and Julien Advent used a ritual to summon an angel from Heaven, mental barriers in the series are capable of blocking out things that are too much for the mortal mind to comprehend without breaking.), Empathic Manipulation (Resisted the aura of Sylvia Sin, a woman who was made into the supernatural personification of every sexual desire ever conceived, through nothing but his own willpower.), Soul Manipulation (Was able to speak several Words of Power which an angel stated "should have blasted the soul right out of his body" through the sheer amount of power involved. His personal protections include shields powerful enough to prevent angels' true forms from pulling his soul out of his body), Power Nullification and Power Absorption (Stated that only a being from Heaven or Hell would be powerful enough to shut down his gift, and that only "the Creator" or "the Enemy" would be able to take away his gift in its entirety. A high-ranking demon capable of shutting off his gift had to put all of his effort into keeping him from using it, and was unable to stop him once his concentration faltered for a split second.), BFR (Was completely unaffected by a flux fog; those caught inside of a flux fog are sent into another possible universe) |-|Possessed by Baphomet= All previous abilities, Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Enhanced Senses (With the power of the angel Baphomet, John stated that "(he) could see for miles, hear every sound in the night, and every movement of the air on (his) skin was like a caress"), Cosmic Awareness (Gained new senses which allowed him to feel and perceive "all of the worlds within the world, and above and beyond it"), Teleportation, Higher-Dimensional Manipulation, Soul Manipulation, Perception Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Matter Manipulation (Angels can transmute people into salt, as well as force people to melt with a glance. John stated that angels can take people apart "right down to the molecular level"), Time Manipulation, Power Nullification (Angels can shut off lesser powers with their mere presence), BFR (Can banish people from the material plane), Resistance to Magic (Angels are unaffected by mortal magic, to the point that the fallen angel Pretty Poison was able to snatch killing spells out of the air and physically eat them. Magic powerful enough to "shake the fabric of the world" doesn't even slow them down.), Resistance to Statistics Reduction (The Nightside itself severely weakens angels through its very nature, yet possessing humans allows both them and their hosts to remain unaffected) Attack Potency: Wall level physically (Broke a woman's neck with a single punch. Threw one of the Harrowing into a wall "with enough force to break the bones of a living man". Can beat down werewolves, who are strong enough to break bones and rip apart cars.) Unknown with his powers (Almost none of his powers focus on raw destruction, making them extremely difficult to tier properly.) | At least Hyperverse level (While allowing the fallen angel Baphomet to possess him, John gained all of the angel's might and powers. Angels originate from Heaven, a plane of existence beyond Limbo, the latter of which exists beyond all of the higher dimensions of the setting.), possibly far higher (Limbo is shown to be a "not-place" where time and direction are not present and every being "exists only as potential, ideas without form", and thus may possibly be an undimensioned void) Speed: Supersonic combat speed and reactions (Reacted to and dodged machinegun fire. With Excalibur, he can keep up with elves, who are capable of casually timing automatic gunfire.), FTL reactions/perception with his third eye active (His third eye allowed him to perceive "inverted tachyons" moving up and down the edges of a piece of glass) | Unknown, likely Immeasurable, possibly far higher Lifting Strength: Superhuman (Can throw a person into a wall with enough force to break all of their bones.) | At least Immeasurable, possibly far higher Striking Strength: Wall Class | At least Hyperversal, possibly far higher Durability: Wall level (Got up after taking a hit from a grizzly bear.), regeneration makes him difficult to kill | At least Hyperverse level, possibly far higher Stamina: Superhuman. Was still able to run for several yards after being beaten within an inch of his life by Herne the Hunter's wild underlings, and continued to be able to run full-sprint after he was struck by a bear hard enough to send him flying him into a tree, well after sustaining the aforementioned injuries. | Likely limitless Range: At least Hyperversal with his powers. Potentially even higher. (His third eye can scan all of space-time, as well as directly affect alternate timelines and higher dimensions. The personification of John's gift has stated that the eye at its full potential is capable of directly tapping into reality, as well as seeing everything that exists in reality-- which is confirmed to have several higher dimensions-- at once. Used his powers to see and reach into the afterlife, which is confirmed to exist beyond all dimensions in the setting.) | Same as before. Standard Equipment: A (potentially sentient) white trenchcoat enchanted with various magical protections. Several packets of salt and pepper. Mousetraps. A flashlight. Flashbangs of varying description. Salamander eggs which function as incendiaries when broken. A banishing coin capable of sending entities away. A "miller medallion" capable of detecting magical output. A sliver of unicorn horn capable of detecting poisons, as well as a few sticks of celery prepared with special substances designed to dispel them. An aboriginal pointing bone made to channel "very old, very basic" death magic. A pair of "chaos dice" designed to affect probability. A portable Timeslip which allows him to travel through time and space within the Nightside. Was at one point in possession of the sword Excalibur, but has since given up ownership of it after the resurrection of King Arthur. | Same as before. Intelligence: Extraordinary Genius. Having spent his entire life learning how to survive in the environment of the Nightside and deal with the many threats contained within, John possesses vast knowledge in supernatural, esoteric and even other-dimensional fields. In his youth, he received training from the founder of the world-class Carnacki Institute which specializes in dealing with spiritual and extradimensional threats, and is confirmed to have learned many secrets from said founder which were explicitly kept from the very organization he himself founded. He is notorious for having escaped certain death on numerous occasions, and his ability to outplan and outmaneuver others in the heat of the moment is exceptional; he has tricked angels, outwitted demons and even briefly outfoxed his own mother, and is one of the only people in the Nightside who could match maneuvers with the previous Walker. Even the Walking Man, the human manifestation of God's wrath on Earth, has acknowledged John's ability to bluff and con his way through nearly any situation he is faced with. | Same as before. Weaknesses: The ease with which he can locate things is directly proportionate to how much of an idea he has of what he is looking for; in his own words, "the more vague the question, the harder it is to find an answer that makes sense". (Many of John's showings appear to contradict this, however. See note below) Use of his third eye causes his mental barriers to deactivate, leaving him more vulnerable to mental attacks. Severe overuse of his gift strains his body and causes him pain, and in exceptional cases, will leave him physically weakened for a period of time. Due to his healing factor originating from werewolf blood, his regeneration can be nullified by silver weapons. | If Baphomet is somehow forced out of his body, or leaves of its own accord, he will lose his angelic powers and return to normal. Key: Base | Possessed by Baphomet Note: Several of John's weaknesses are consistently ignored at many points throughout the novels. For example, John's need for "a specific question to get a specific answer" is shown to prevent him from finding Max Maxwell during the opening events of The Unnatural Inquirer for unstated reasons, yet outside of this he has shown to be capable of locating other characters such as Melissa Griffin, Merlin Satanspawn and even the Walking Man, with the latter having been a character he had never met in person before and whose real name he did not learn until much later. It is stated at the beginning of the series that his powers only work in the Nightside. However, this is very heavily contradicted on numerous occasions, and by the end of the series, John himself states that he was refraining from using his powers by choice during his time spent in the outside world. (Effectively retconning said weakness entirely.) Others Notable Victories: Lucetta Quetzl (A House of Many Doors) Lucetta's profile (Speed was equalized. John was in base and Lucetta was in her Perennial form.) Notable Losses: Inconclusive Matches: Gerald Tarrant (Coldfire Trilogy) Gerald's profile (Speed was equalized and John was in base.) Category:Characters Category:Greenverse Category:Nightside Category:Book Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Protagonists Category:Primary Protagonists Category:Heroes Category:Good Characters Category:Reality Warpers Category:Magic Users Category:Regeneration Users Category:Enhanced Senses Users Category:Acausal Characters Category:Extrasensory Perception Users Category:Clairvoyance Users Category:Psychometry Users Category:Non-Physical Interaction Users Category:Precognition Users Category:Fire Users Category:Telepaths Category:Telekinesis Users Category:Portal Users Category:Time Travelers Category:Dimensional Travel Users Category:Biology Users Category:Body Puppetry Users Category:Paralysis Users Category:Light Users Category:Teleportation Users Category:Space Users Category:Technopaths Category:Probability Users Category:Death Users Category:Soul Users Category:Possession Users Category:BFR Users Category:Resistance Negation Users Category:Rage Users Category:Power Nullification Users Category:Power Absorption Users Category:Absorption Users Category:Attack Reflection Users Category:Cosmic Awareness Users Category:Matter Users Category:Time Users Category:Magic Resistant Category:Tier 9 Category:Tier 1